Tuesday Tidbits: Will Muschamp looks ahead to Ole Miss

South Carolina Gamecocks head coach Will Muschamp met with the media for his weekly press conference on Tuesday, reviewing a bit of the win against Tennessee but mostly looking ahead to the road tilt against Ole Miss this weekend. The highlights:

On the injury front

“Dennis Daley is probably doubtful for this weekend. He did not practice today and he’s in a boot to keep the swelling down. ... Randrecous Davis and Chad Terrell are day-to-day, J.T. Ibe and Nick Harvey are out.”

On the importance of getting off to a good start

“They can score in bunches and they can score quickly. They’ve been very effective scoring points on everybody. Getting out of the gates strong, playing real well in the middle strong, and finishing up strong too — we need to do all three.”

On the offensive approach

“We want to be effective. Whether that’s mixing tempo — I think we’ve done a really good job of playing fast at opportune times in the game. I look at last Saturday night and we had some opportunities and we hit some plays to get on the ball and play fast and we were very effective when we did that. That’s something we’re going to continue to do. I think the flow of the game continues to dictates a lot of that. I think Bryan [McClendon] has a very good feel of when we need to play fast and when we don’t.”

On who would replace Daley if he can’t go

“Malik [Young] played very well and was our offensive lineman of the week — really played well and has played good football for us. He’ll play left tackle. Malik’s been a great teammate and has worked extremely hard.”

On Bryan McClendon calling plays from the sideline

“B-Mac came to me after the A&M game. We have not been as productive as we need to be at the receiver position, for whatever reason. He felt like he needed to be on the field with them. Because of the Missouri game situation with the headsets, he called I thought a very good game when he was down on the field. It’s all about seeing the game. If you’re able to handle that on the field — it’s a lot more hectic on the field than it is sitting in a press box. I thought he did a really good job the other night calling the game and against Missouri. We’ll continue to move forward. I thought we played better at the receiver position and the players seemed to be receptive to it, so that’s what works.”

On the Wonnum brothers

“Both guys are talented players. Thank goodness for their mom. ... Getting D.J. back in his leadership role, I think the intangibles, as much as anything, help our football team. Obviously he’s a good, productive player, but he gives a lot to our team as far as that. Dylan’s got a huge upside. He’s a really talented guy, to be a massive man and to have the athleticism, change direction, the punch and power and flexibility in his lower body, it was just a matter of a time before he started to get it and it started to click for him.”

On the defensive approach

“We’re going to face a really good offensive line. Number one, the ball’s out pretty quickly, number two, the quarterback does a good job of feeling and evading the rush and creating things with his legs, which is another issue. Being able mix three-, four- and five-man pressures, mix split-safety and middle field, disguise what you can — which is difficult when you play a tempo team. We’ll try and come up with a new thing here or there, which we do every week on both sides of the ball, and see if we can catch them off guard at times. It all comes down to execution, and when you play a team like this, a lot comes down to communication. If you get out of position, it gets a guy like A.J. [Brown] outside, and it’s probably going to end up in a touchdown.”

On the tempo

“It helps when you’re able to run the football. When you’re able to get positive yards and you’re not in a negative situation. You’re not battling behind the sticks. When you’re able to stay ahead of the sticks, tempo works wonderfully well. ... There’s been some games that we’ve executed tempo much better, but I think a lot of that was because of the run game, or because of an explosive play.”

On Mon Denson’s play, especially late against Tennessee

“He deserved the opportunity because of the way he’s practiced. He’s had a tough time with the hamstring and it’s been frustrating for him and frustrating for us. We’ve missed him on special teams as well. ... He produced extremely well and gave us more and more confidence to give him more opportunities.”

Notable

Freshman defensive lineman Jesus Gibbs will transfer. ... Muschamp is hoping for a two-week timeframe to get that Dec. 1 makeup game nailed down, but ultimately doesn’t know what Ray Tanner is dealing with.